The Caddick Family

A Memory of Nancledra.

Nancledra Days

1946 was the year that our family life in Nancledra began. What a relief it must have been to our parents, Peggy and Arthur Caddick to move into Windswept Cottage. The war years in London were over and they both felt a huge sense of freedom and hope for the future.

Windswept cottage had been sadly neglected and required fumigating but they were not deterred. They had, at last, found the home that would enable Dad to fulfill his dream of surviving as a writer in a place that we were all to become passionately fond of.

Nancledra village became the centre of our universe in the early years of our childhood. There were five of us, three girls and two boys. The boys loved fishing in the river and spent endless hours of pleasure with their friends. One of the highlights of those years was the Beetle Drives, held in the Gilbert Hall which was situated in the centre of the village. We loved running down Nancledra hill in the starlight, flashing our torches and pretending to be pursued by all sorts of imaginary horrors! The village always looked so welcoming with its twinkling lights and cosy cottages. We worked ourselves into quite a frenzy of excitement over those ‘beetles’ and the refreshments afterwards were all part of the attraction.

People were so friendly and welcoming to each other in Nancledra in those days, a far cry from the lonely anonymity of some places today. We all knew each other and the village shop and post office was still open and was the hub of the community. The shop was the place where the bits of gossip were ‘mulled over’ and jars of sweets seemed like ‘manna from heaven’.

Ration books put strict limits on our over indulgences in the years following the end of the war. A quarter of sweets had to suffice for our family of seven. Bottles of Corona Pop were a real treat on hot summer days and you could get your money back on returned glass bottles in those days as an added bonus.

Nancledra School was some distance from the village centre and even further away from ‘Windswept’. It was quite a trek on wet, wintery days. Living at the end of the lane at the top of Nancledra hill added quite a distance to our journey. We often arrived at school like drowned rats much to the annoyance of our teacher who got fed up with trying to sort out all the wet clothes and shoes. Things were different in summer. We loved the walk to school on warm, balmy days and on the way home we dawdled along without a care in the world, stopping at the stream to look for dragonflies and frogs.

The whole Nancledra area was a walker’s paradise and as a family we all made the most of it. We loved walking down to the Ford for pick-nicks, paddling in the icy water and sailing our sticks down the river. The walk to Trencrom was one of our favourite walks. Spurred on by thoughts of ice cold orange squash at the Trencrom Weavers hut we hardly noticed the distance and where could you get a better view of the sea and the Cornish landscape than from the top of Trencrom Hill?

So many memories crowd into my mind when I think of those precious years but most of all is the feeling of how lucky we were to make our home in such a place. Thank you Nancledra for giving us a sense of place and such rich memories that will remain with me forever.

Diana Caddick